Chronic infection with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is common, affecting up to 1% of the UK population. It is well recognised that chronic HCV infection is associated with a wide variety of symptoms including fatigue, upper abdominal pain and dyspepsia, which lead to an overall reduction in the quality of life. Conventional therapy with pharmaceutical agents leads to an improvement in symptoms but is effective in only 40% of patients. There is thus a need for effective treatments that can reduce the symptoms associated with chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and thereby improve the quality of life of a greater percentage of HCV patients.